Non-Performing loans

Non-Performing loans

The non-performing loans (NPL) market is characterised by the presence of players who approach the business in often widely different ways and focus their attention on portfolios that are often non-homogeneous, especially as for the type of receivable that is bought, the account debtors, and the methods of collection.

As for the type of receivables bought, they can be divided into at least the following segments:

As for the type of debtors, they can be broken down into individuals with or without steady employment or pension income and businesses, differentiating between limited companies on the one hand and partnerships/sole proprietorships on the other.

We may distinguish two broad areas for collection, judicial and non-judicial.

All these differentiators significantly influence the NPL portfolios’ potential to generate cash flows, as well as the supporting operational processes and organisational structure, collection costs, and, above all, the costs for purchasing the portfolios from the originators (usually financial companies related to banking groups, but also retailers of goods or services, or other intermediaries operating in the NPL sector).

Furthermore, there are players with different approaches to taking risks: some acquire and manage their portfolios until they collect the receivables, while others focus just on managing them for a fee (and the two often cooperate).

The above variables are key for assessing the NPL market, resulting in the presence of both very large and small players with diverse approaches, subject to different regulations, and equipped with varying financial and technological resources.

The Bank's NPL Area, which operates in the retail market under the Credi Famiglia brand, focuses mainly on NPLs from consumer, renting, and automotive loans, as well as unsecured retail loans. It operates also in the segment of NPLs from asset/salary-backed consumer credit/retail loans due from individuals. On rare occasions, Banca IFIS's NPL Area even dealt with NPLs from various financial products and guaranteed by third parties (through surety bonds, loan guarantee consortia, others). The NPL Area usually buys receivables portfolios directly from lenders, but it may also purchase them from other sellers. This market is known as “secondary”: while it is already mature and active in other countries, in Italy it is still developing. The NPL Area will purchase the above asset classes on both the primary and secondary markets. It may also consider selling part of the portfolios acquired after turning the account debtors into paying customers, earning a significant margin relative to their purchase price right away.

The NPL Area is constantly innovating, looking for alternative payment methods allowing the debtors willing to settle their dues to do so using new and more flexible approaches. In this sense, it is currently reviewing the collection process in order to focus on turning the debtor into a customer, thus

actively managing the relevant relationship also through CRM approaches. Concerning debtors who may settle their debts but are not willing to do so, the NPL Area defined a court-ordered collection procedure to distrain one-fifth of the debtor's salary or pension. The Bank is currently bolstering its Call Centre, which will both assist with existing settlement plans (issuing reminders and collecting individual instalments by phone) and start processing portfolios by phone.